The Advanced Threat Research team performs vulnerability research to help Intel Security lead the way in developing secure technology.

Advanced Threat Research

Increasingly, people around the world depend on technology for their daily activities. Making this technology trustworthy involves a deep understanding of how attacks work. By researching security vulnerabilities, the Advanced Threat Research (ATR) team in Intel Security discovers opportunities to drive toward more secure technology.

Security of Crypto Software

This presentation will focus on a number of problem authors found in a number of crypto libraries related to ASN.1 parsing functionality. Some of these issues, such as 'BERserk' RSA signature forgery vulnerability in Mozilla NSS library (VU#772676), have already been studied publicly while others, such as ASN.1 parser issues in Oracle Java (CVE-2015-0410) and other crypto/SSL libraries, are largely unknown. Besides detailing specific issues we will discuss general set of potential issues with ASN.1 parsers used by crypto implementations, ways to avoid making such issues as well as test crypto libraries for issues in ASN.1 parsers.

Vulnerabilities related to BERSerk in other crypto libraries | 2014-10-06

The Intel ATR team has been reviewing other crypto libraries for related problems and has found that some other libraries are affected by similar vulnerabilities. Intel PSIRT and CERT/CC continues coordination with the developers of affected crypto libraries under VU#772676. Further details about related vulnerabilities in embedded SSL/crypto libraries:

The ATR team at Intel Security and Antoine Delignat-Lavaud (INRIA Paris, PROSECCO) have discovered a critical class of vulnerability in ASN.1 parsing used in a certain crypto libraries, including Mozilla NSS. This vulnerability (dubbed BERserk) allows for attackers to forge RSA signatures, thereby allowing for the bypass of authentication to websites using SSL/TLS. Authentication mechanisms within firmware on specific devices may be compromised as well, allowing attackers to compromise the integrity of software on the device. read more